"Being an activist is the rent we pay for being on the planet." Alice Walker

O'Reilly Settles and the Right Tunes In

For a man who claims to have been the victim of extortion to the tune of $60m, a man who vowed to fight charges of sexual harassment that he claimed were utterly false, Bill O'Reilly settled pretty quickly. And why not? He's only out a few million and since the charges were made, ratings for his program have spiked (though sales of his book for kids haven't fared so well).

The terms of the settlement are confidential, but they clearly don't require O'Reilly to admit anything or apologize. He's dropped his suit alleging extortion - big suprise there - and has begged his viewers not to believe everything they hear. Most interesting to me is that O'Reilly never denied that he said what his former producer claimed he said. He just hid behind the claim that he never broke the law, didn't think his producer was really offended, and that his words were taken out of context. (Go read the transcript of the suit that was filed and tell me what possible context there could be that would make his words appropriate.)

So O'Reilly will continue to lecture us all on being upstanding moral citizens, claiming to be a moderate indpendent while shilling for the right, attacking his guests when he thinks it's warranted, and playing victim of the liberal media. But, just possibly, he won't be verbally assaulting the women who work for him with lurid fantasies, advice on sex, boasts of his own prowess, and panting phone calls.

Clearly, I'm not an O'Reilly fan, so I assume a bit of bias. But I believe that he did what he was accused of, believe that his former producer had tapes of him panting away, and I suspect that this behavior has been a bit of a habit. I've worked with enough powerful older men who can't separate professional women from their sexuality to know it's not such a reach. The behavior that O'Reilly is accused of is more extreme, but a milder form of harassment isn't really uncommon in the halls of corporate America. And the options available to the recipient of the harassment are quite limited. Filing a sexual harassment claim is generally interpreted as a declaration that you cannot handle corporate politics, that you're weak, that you can't "play with the big boys". Filing a claim is like asking if the company would please make sure that you're never promoted. I know that outside of a lawsuit, most men accused of sexual harassment suffer few if any consequences. Meet with your manager monthly for 6 months and have your record expunged if there are no further complaints? I once knew of a case where a man had those meetings with his manager at a strip joint.

I don't think the laws on sexual harassment are as clear as they should be, since it's all based on the perception of the harassed. But given the professional cost of filing a complaint, I don't think women are quick to file a complaint. I know the whole area can get murky, and I'm a bit sympathetic to the reality that there is no defined line that can't be crossed. But I have no patience for men who say they can't say anything for fear that it will be misinterpreted. (Hint: Don't comment on women's bodies, don't proposition them, don't tell them they need to get laid.) Finally, I know that men have also suffered from sexual harassment, but I have never witnessed it and don't know any men who have had to deal with it. I know many women who have.

There's nothing unique about what I believe O'Reilly really did. It's base and common and inconsistent with his public and professional life. It's vile. I'd like to see the people who were understandably angry at Clinton, and those who were unacceptably vitriolic, many of whom are O'Reilly fans, to take a stand here. The righteous indignation expressed over a consensual affair between a boss and an employee many levels down should be at least matched in the case of a boss and his direct subordinate, where aggressive sexual language and behavior reached the point of unwanted phone sex. Conservatives screamed foul when feminists didn't condemn Clinton. I scream foul now that they aren't condemning O'Reilly.

Comments

I hope if there are tapes, they somehow get leaked. But I will bet you that was part of the settlement, all tapes were turned over to O'Reilly and his attorney. But it would be snarky fun to have the tapes surface again. And watch O'Reilly's head explode.